Sony Mobile EVP of Global Sales & Marketing, Hideyuki Furumi, told TechRadar the news noting, "We will see a range of X series, top to bottom."

Furumi explained, "We have the Xperia Ear and the Xperia Projector - the Xperia brand is expanding in terms of categories. We need to establish what the Xperia smartphone stands for.

"Our focus is on essential features as well as making the product much more intelligent, and that's the kind of common theme of your smartphone.

"So we decided to brand our smartphones basically X rather than Z or C or M or whatever."

Goodbye Xperia Z6 - we hardly knew ye

Furumi said already announced Xperia products that aren't part of the Xperia X line will remain on sale - but there won't be any new announcements in the future regarding anything other than an Xperia X device.

A Sony representative did confirm there would be one exception to the rule, but it would be released in the US or UK and declined to give any more information on which phone it will be.

While it sounds big news that the Z line is dead, in reality all Sony has done has stuck an X in front of a new strategy. It's highly likely we'll see the Xperia XZ2 next year, so if anything it's just adding letters to the mix, and doesn't mean anything about the kinds of phones it'll be making in the future.

But as Furumi noted, the Xperia name is also expanding to other products as well including wearables in the form of the Xperia Ear and more innovative lines such as the Xperia Projector and Xperia Agent – so having a single letter for each phone defines it clearly within the strategy.